In articulating her creative process, Ashley Williams remarked in a preview: “If I could easily explain it, then I probably wouldn’t make it.” This statement encapsulates her approach to design, which eschews conventional tropes in favor of visceral expression.
Returning to showing IRL on the runway last season after her brand’s three-year hiatus, Williams defies industry expectations, preferring to trust her instincts and respond intuitively to her surroundings, all while showing her collections off the official schedule. For fall, she did what she does best: Dump all her raw emotions into her craft. “I’ve been experimenting with more personal themes than ever before, and not worrying about the outcome or how people will perceive them,” she said.
Continuing on the cut-and-paste vibes from last season, albeit presented in lookbook format, themes of death and rebirth were abstractly depicted through jaunty, anarchic designs—ranging from the elegant to the occult and macabre. Ultra-cute manga characters adorned baby tees, caped tops, midi skirts, and shift dresses—oh, and a dakimakura (aka a human-sized body pillow). “I call her Brandon, named after Hilary Swank’s character in Boys Don’t Cry—but Brandon is a boy,” she explained. “Normally the characters on these pillows are hyper-sexualised with giant breasts, so to flip that on its head I gave Brandon a giant erection.”
Structured, pleated shift dresses in check and duchesse satin featured transparent inserts revealing undergarments or breasts: “It’s a play on modest dressing, but sometimes you just want to show off your cool underwear!” the designer said. Last season’s “I Heart Me” print extended onto ballet pumps, baker boy caps, leg warmers, and tote bags, as well as a jacket and hot pants sets and a midi-skirt-meets-drop-crotch-pants hybrid. This new pant silhouette was also seen in denim and wool.
Another extension from last season, Jesus and cross motifs, permeated the lineup, with inspiration drawn from Caravaggio’s ecclesiastical painting, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas. Williams reinterpreted this moment with a bleeding cut screen-printed onto a gray linen sleeveless dress, symbolizing birth and Jesus’s wound being examined by his disciples. A decapitated dove print on a caped dress came as an ode to the Giles Deacon dress Lily Allen wore to the Glamour Awards in 2008, where she was famously carried out of the event. “I just really loved those images of her,” said Williams.
Although Williams’s designs and their references may not be straightforward, exploring her creations reveals cryptic yet thoughtful meanings behind details and motifs—like a pick ‘n’ mix bag of sweets: You never know what you’re going to get.
